Welcome to the future, I been saying this for over a year its coming. Soon if you want action figures of any decent quality you will buy directly from HAsbro / Mattel at a much higher price. The things in the isle will be CHEAP

What I don't understand is how Transformers seems to be immune. They seem as intricate as ever (granted I just get a few of the WOC ones nowadays like the recent Combaticons). Is it the licensing costs that make the difference?

But then the Joes we saw for the new movie were starting to be downgraded as well (drivers, especially), and they own that concept.

And to think how good the IM2 ones were just a few years ago.

Sigh. Guess I will just stick Iron Patriot in the back and call it a day.

More money for Iron Man Lego sets, I guess.

_________________Leave it up to a billionaire to buy the world some time --- Tony Stark

I'll hold off on these movie figures. Finally got a comic series Whiplash and comic series Iron Monger over the holidays. I'm hoping they do more comic series figures like Gray Gargoyle, Blizzard, Madame Masque, etc. I just put them on my shelf so losing some of the articulation won't bother me too much but I'll reserve my judgement till I see them in the store.

This is just the Iron Assemblers line. The main line Iron Man 3 movie figures have not been shown, and unless something leaks somewhere, we won't see them until Toy Fair.

Shellhead wrote:

But then the Joes we saw for the new movie were starting to be downgraded as well (drivers, especially), and they own that concept.

Other than the vehicle drivers, only the first two waves of Retaliation figures are lacking in articulation (and not even all of those). That picks back up with wave 3 and beyond. Keep in mind that despite last year's delay of the sequel, it was originally pushed forward due to a delay on the Star Trek sequel, giving Hasbro very little time to crank out toys. With figures like "Ultimate" Duke, "Ultimate" Snake-Eyes, "Ultimate" Firefly, Cobra Combat Ninja, Night-Viper, Blind Master, Crimson Guard, the movie-accurate Red Ninja, Mouse, Airborne, Battle Pack Firefly, the Eel coming with the new Night Landing Raft, and most likely better versions of Flint and Roadblock that were only in the display case for a few minutes in New Orleans coming this year, Jointgate will be JOE history in a couple of months.

I got the 5 POA Iron Man, Cap, and Spidey. They look good. They are $5 at Family Dollar, $6 at Dollar General. This is acceptable for 5 POA. Some 5 POA variations would look good in a Hall of Armor display.

CCC.

_________________The expediency of acquired knowledge is preponderant upon determining a justifiable conclusion, unattainable at this time.

I'm not saying the main line figures will have all the articulation bells and whistles Hasbro is capable of delivering, just that we haven't seen them yet. I don't think the play feature on these Iron Assemblers toys really lends itself to many moving parts. That would just mean a lot of broken figures, especially since it's fairly obvious these were designed almost exclusively for kids. I would expect, however, to see some collector-friendly options when more is revealed in NYC next month.